Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Quality Control

When we were in the city of Danyang, China, we witnessed a real-life paradox. Danyang is best known for its explosive growth in optical lens manufacturing over the last decade, sprouting hundreds of factories with cleanrooms chock-full of gleaming, automated machinery.

There is a lot that goes into manufacturing a lens, and this machinery performs the bulk of it: from lens curing, lens cleaning, to lens coating. As Stanford AI researchers and engineers wildly interested in Chinese manufacturing, we were impressed by this caliber of automation.